The Lagos State Government has attributed the recurring incidents of building collapse across the state to the refusal by landlords and occupants to comply with safety regulations, insisting that several affected structures had earlier been identified as distressed and marked for demolition.
Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, made this known on Friday during an appearance on Arise Television’s News Night programme following the collapse of a multi-storey building in the Alakija area of Amuwo-Odofin Local Government Area on Thursday.
According to Omotoso, the collapsed structure had previously been declared unsafe and sealed by government authorities, but some occupants allegedly returned to the building before it eventually caved in.
“The house had been marked ‘distressed’, and everybody there had to leave. In fact, at a time, it was shut down. But before the government could come in there to remove the structure, people went back in there,” he said.
The commissioner blamed the frequent building collapses in Lagos on what he described as disregard for government directives and the tendency of some property owners to place economic interests above human lives.
“As to why it keeps on occurring, it’s very simple: people don’t want to obey the law. If you obey the law, everything will be fine. We keep on marking all these buildings and pulling them down, but before you get to some, this kind of thing happens.
“So, it’s because people are not responsible. People believe in prioritising commercial activities and livelihood over life, which is very, very wrong. Once
